Abstract

In discussing criticisms of the “dark sideµ of human rights, the article firstly aims to highlight the need to distinguish, without separating, the conceptualization and practice of human rights. In this sense, the discourse on human rights and criticism of them should distinguish between the “limitsµ of rights, relating to conceptualization and specifically concerning the functions and ends that can be properly associated with human rights, and the “deficitsµ, concerning shortcomings in implementation and guarantee of rights. The analysis then aims to enhance the hermeneutic circularity of the two dimensions and to overcome different forms of reductionism. The paper ends by highlighting the need to appreciate the role of epistemic communities for rights interpretation and implementation, so as to elaborate a less fragmented, more incisive international human rights law as well to overcome a merely emergency view of rights